MEDIALON goes 20,000 years under the ice at "The Glacier Garden" in Quebec

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The Glacier Garden" is a scientific indoor and outdoor museum located in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, Canada, where visitors can travel back in time and experience the northern adventure 20,000 years under the ice.

Medialon has been selected by XYZ Cultural Technology, a canadian-based integrator and AV designer company, to be the main controller of the entire indoor part of the museum.

When entering the museum, visitors become real explorers. They can discover and learn more about the Ice Age, climate change, migration of the first inhabitants, etc.

Visitors start their journey by entering the Glacier Exploration Station where the magic of sound, video, lighting, and multimedia technologies transport them into a virtual expedition.

One Medialon Manager V5 Pro license controls four different timeline shows where several tasks run simultaneously in the Glacier Exploration Station. Thanks to Medialon Manager Panel, the free touch panel design software, XYZ Cultural Technology has created friendly-user touch panel interfaces to be used on RedLion touch screens. Via the touch screens, the museum's staff is able to remotely control the shows: start and stop shows, know the time status for each show, launch test sequences, etc.

During their journey, visitors enter in an elevator which takes them down 4000 ft in the middle of a glacier, where water streams cut and groove the ice. Medialon controls a rotating stage via a PLC which simulates the elevator.

Once being totally immersed under the glacier, visitors are surrounded by an immersive video projection sound and lighting effects, all managed and synchronized by Medialon.

The expedition continues with a video show projected on a spectacular giant water screen where visitors can see the rise of sea levels from melting glaciers 8,000 years ago, as well as the formation of the Ancient Seas and today's consequences on the environment. The visitors are surrounded of special effect like mist, smoke, and lighting, sound and video effects.

Medialon is in charge of controlling the Dataton Watchout system used for the video projections in each experience.

At the end of the exploration, visitors can access to the Cyber Center, a multimedia experience and research room where they can further investigate subjects developed in the Glacier Exploration Station.

This computer room is made up of 10 interactive work stations with educating content. LCD screens have been installed on top of each work station and allow observers to follow each participant's actions and navigation. Thanks to a Medialon Manager Panel, the laboratory manager can remotely select the info to be displayed on the screens via a video matrix and create true interactivity with the visitors.

XYZ Cultural Technology has also been in charge of the A/V integration of a multipurpose room built in "The Glacier Garden" indoor part of the museum.

During regular operation, the multipurpose room is a cinema room displaying uninterrupted programming of short and feature-length films, documentaries, and press reports in the field of glaciers, climate changes, etc.

For special events, the multipurpose room turns into a conference and/or a video conference room.

A Medialon Manager Panel has been installed in the control room of the multipurpose room. It allows the staff to control the sound, video projection as well as lightings of this room. As it can also be rented for private sessions, another Medialon Panel in “Event” mode has been designed as well by XYZ. It allows clients to easily manage and synchronize their own music, videos, lighting effects, etc.

In order to give efficient technical assistance to the museum, XYZ has especially designed a “Maintenance” mode which gives access to each devices controlled by Medialon Manager V5 via internet.

« "The Garden of the Glaciers" project was complex and in the meantime it had to be easy to use for the museum's staff. », said Audrey Gilbert, Project Coordinator from XYZ Cultural Technology.

« We chose Medialon because it perfectly fitted the museum's needs. It allowed us to control and monitor all the A/V devices installed in each room of the museum through one single interface. It is a truly reliable control system. », concluded Audrey Gilbert.